Military Chiefs Call for End to 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

WASHINGTON (Feb. 2) -- In what may prove the turning point in the debate over allowing gays to serve openly in the military, the nation's top uniformed officer forcefully told a Senate committee today that it was wrong to force troops "to lie about who they are" and that he believes the current policy should be repealed.

"It is the right thing to do," said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. For me, personally, it comes down to integrity -- theirs as individuals and ours as an institution."

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The panel, hastily tacked on to a previously scheduled budget hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee, followed last week's call by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address to repeal the 17-year-old policy.

"This year," Obama vowed, "I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are."

"We received our orders from the commander in chief, and we are moving out accordingly," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the committee. "But the ultimate decision is with you, the Congress."
Gates said he was naming Pentagon counsel Jed Johnson and Gen. Carter Ham, commander of Army forces in Europe, to examine the impact of repealing the policy, which was crafted by President Bill Clinton as a compromise with conservatives and then Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin Powell and other military brass. Johnson and Ham will look at such issues as housing, benefits, fraternization rules and the impact on military effectiveness in terms of unit cohesion, recruiting and retention.

Even before Gates approved the review, military dismissals over violating the policy dropped in 2009 to the lowest level in more than a decade. More than 13,500 service members have been ousted from the military since the policy was implemented in 1994, but the numbers fell sharply after 2001 when the U.S. went to war and the military struggled to fill the ranks.

There are an estimated 66,000 gays and lesbians in the military today, according to UCLA's Williams Institute, which studies sexual orientation.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee chairman, urged repeal of the law, which has led to the ouster of dozens of Arabic and Farsi linguists just when they are most needed. He later lauded Mullen's statement as "a profile in leadership."

Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican and a former Navy pilot, said "don't ask, don't tell" is "an imperfect but effective policy" and urged that it not be overturned. He was joined by other Republicans when he said he was "deeply disappointed" that Gates supported Obama's decision, calling his statement "clearly biased."

McCain had said in June and in October 2006 that he based his opposition on the opinions of top military leaders, and if they changed their minds on "don't ask," he would too. The New York Times reported that when gay rights leaders pointed out the apparent discrepancy after the hearing, a McCain spokeswoman said the senator thought Mullen was speaking personally. Once a Pentagon review is finished, the spokeswoman said, McCain will consider what military leaders as a whole have to say.

After the hearing, the admiral, whose Twitter handle is @thejointstaff, stood firm. "Stand by what I said: Allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the right thing to do," he tweeted. "Comes down to integrity."

While Democrats on the committee want the policy overturned -- Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado channeled Barry Goldwater, saying, "You don't have to be straight to shoot straight" -- not everyone in their party is ready for a change.

Indeed, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, told reporters in Kansas City that he wished to avoid "anything that is disturbing or upsetting to the troops" during a time of war.

But there are signs that the vitriol unleashed in 1993 when Clinton made gays in the military one of his priorities has mellowed. Republican senators went out of their way to acknowledge that gays and lesbians have and continue to serve honorably. And several didn't stick around when the questioning shifted from the Pentagon budget to gays.

"For Republicans, this is an issue that has a lot less emotion than it did 17 years ago," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist who was a Marine officer in 1993 and later served as spokesman for the Armed Services Committee. "I don't know whether it really makes sense for Republicans to go to the mat fighting this issue when it has such strong support from Adm. Mullen and Secretary Gates."

In a hearing room packed with gay rights activists and veterans, a few opponents to the policy shift sat up front, on the other side of a red velvet rope. One of them was Elaine Donnelly, who has earned a reputation as the most vocal voice opposing gays -- and women -- in the military from her perch atop the Center for Military Readiness.

The nation's military leaders "should not compromise principle by proposing an unworkable plan," she said. Like McCain, she noted that more than 1,100 retired generals and admirals had signed a petition opposing an end to the policy.

Gay rights advocates in the room were stunned by the stand taken by Mullen and Gates.

"We got more than we expected in terms of the courage and honesty," said Alex Nicholson of Servicemembers United.

But Army Lt. Dan Choi, an Arabic linguist who outed himself on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and is still serving, said he wasn't surprised by Mullen's testimony. "It surprises me that it took that long for those kinds of words to be shared with this body," he said.